Maiji Mountain Grottoes, known as the "Oriental Sculpture Museum", in Tianshui, west China's Gansu Province, will apply to the United Nations' Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the World Heritage List.
With more than 1,600 years of history, the grottoes contain over 7,000 pieces of clay sculpture, which are of high artistic and academic value, said Hu Chengzu, head of the Maiji Grottoes Art Institute.
He said relevant government departments are now involved in preparing application to both the world natural and cultural heritage lists.
The grottoes were built on cliffs, 80 meters above the ground, in 402 A.D. and have been improved over a dozen dynasties including Northern Wei (386-534), Western Wei (535-556), Northern Zhou (557-581), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907), the period of Five Dynasties (907-960), Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911), and have created a history of China's sculpture art.
Located beside the Tianshui, a major city in east Gansu, the grottoes, along with Mogao Grottoes in the province's Dunhuang area, Yungang Grottoes in Shanxi Province, and Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, are the four most famous grottoes in China.
In addition to clay sculptures, there are a total of 1,300 square meters of frescos and more than 2,000 pieces of pottery, bronzeware, ironware, jade articles, ancient books, documents, paintings, calligraphy and other cultural relics in the 194 grottoes.
"It is really a miracle that all those clay sculptures and other relics are preserved so well after more than 1,600 years," said Hu, adding that the grottoes remain the biggest grottoes in the world which have such a large number of clay sculptures.
The Tianshui municipal government has already issued a long-term program to protect the relics in the grottoes and has begun to collect data on the geography, water, temperature and moisture in the environment surrounding Maiji Mountain.
The local government will also clear the illegal construction around the grottoes and organize farmers to return land for farming to forestry to meet the standards of the world heritage application.
